4 September 2015

Photograph: [www.turfclub.com.sg]

No stranger to South African turf clubs, Mauritian jockey Nooresh Juglall, picked up where he left off with an early race-to-race double at Kranji in Singapore on Friday night.

 

The in-form rider returned from a two-day ban with three wins last weekend, Power Play, Imperial March before rounding out the haul in Sunday’s last race, Silver Star, and that winning trend flowed on uninterrupted when he booted home the John O’Hara-trained Satellite Prince and the Patrick Shaw-trained Winning Cause in the two opening events five days later.

 

Though Satellite Prince’s win in the $35,000 Class 5 race over 1100m at odds of $63 came a bit as a surprise to most compared to odds-on ($8) favourite Winning Cause’s in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1400m, Juglall did come to Kranji with a silent hope of such a quickfire double early in the proceedings.

“Satellite Prince was badly checked at the 200m at his last run when I rode him,” said Juglall.

 

“We put blinkers on him in a trial and he went very well. From the outside barrier (12), I had to go at him early as the instructions were to go forward and I was very happy where he was in the run, just outside the leader (Balestra).

 

“Once I asked him for an effort, he found the line very well. He’s a nice horse.

 

“I was obviously more confident about Winning Cause. This horse has always been unlucky and after four seconds, it was high time he won his first race.

 

“I know he has the ability to win the race, though he’s still an immature baby. He can only get better and better, and I think he will get 1600m, 1800m no problem.

 

“Tonight, he was off the bit in the backstraight, but once he grabbed the bridle, I was toying with them at the 300m.

 

“I didn’t want to go too early with him as he had some weight (57kg) on his back, but once I popped the question to him, he won as he liked.

 

“This is another nice win for Pat, (assistant-trainer) Ricky (Le Grange) and (owner) Mark (Yong), especially for Pat who wasn’t very well last week.”

Shaw agreed with Juglall that this new Tmen Stable galloper is not without qualities.

 

“He’s always shown he had ability, and we were confident he would run well tonight,” said the South African trainer.

 

“I wasn’t too worried about the weight as he is the type who can carry weight. He is a late maturer and will grow into a very nice horse.”

 

A US$50,000 purchase as a yearling, Winning Cause, a US-bred three-year-old by Giant’s Causeway, has now brought his earnings closer to the $100,000 mark for the Tmen Stable with that maiden win, no doubt helped by his four seconds’ prizemoney.

 

Satellite Prince, on the other hand, was not at his first win, having won once last October when prepared by Desmond Koh. That second success at only his second run for O’Hara has now taken his stakes money close to the $75,000 mark for the Satellite Stable.